Tourism and high speed rail in Spain: Does the AVE increase local visitors?

• Published in: Annals of tourism research Vol. 65; pp. 71 - 82
• Main Authors: Albalate, Daniel, Campos, Javier, Jiménez, Juan Luis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2017; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Anàlisi de dades de panel; Cities; Difference in difference; High speed rail; High speed trains; Infrastructure; Local tourism; Panel analysis; Panel data; Tourism; Trens d'alta velocitat; Turisme; Spain; R42; R53; Panel data; Difference in difference; L83; High speed rail; Local tourism
• ISSN: 0160-7383; 1873-7722
• DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2017.05.004

•We study the effects of the introduction of HSR services on local tourism.•Database used includes several Spanish cities between 2005 and 2012.•Difference-in-difference and panel data estimation are used.•Results confirm that effects are weak or just restricted to larger cities. This paper analyses from an empirical point of view the relationship between the provision of high-speed rail services (HSR) and the evolution of tourism at the local level in Spain. We have built a database of 124 municipalities during the 2005–2012 period to study the effects of the introduction of new HSR corridors on the number of visitors and their total and average stay at several end-line and intermediate cities as compared to similar counterparts not having such an infrastructure. We combine both difference-in-difference and panel data techniques to find that these effects are, in general, extremely weak or just restricted to larger cities, once other determining factors are controlled for.